Why Shorelandia?I live in Shoreline, Washington, which snuggles up to the border of Seattle. It’s one of those cities where when someone asks where you’re from, you say Seattle, because otherwise you’ll end up saying it’s a suburb just north of there. A while back I became a member of our local Buy Nothing Project group and was amazed by the variety of goods our community was offering. New to the rules, structure and lingo I didn’t realize that when someone commented on a post that it would bring it up to the top of the feed. If a post were in danger of being buried in the heap, someone would helpfully type in “Bump” and one woman in particular liberally sprinkled “Buy Nothing Earlybirds!” (a sub-group of early risers poring over the freebies, I assumed) over everything from empty baby food jars to firewood. Reading it sounded like a crazed parrot in my head, and it brought to mind the couple from Portlandia who carpet-bombed everything with birds; Put a bird on it! Both of us being card-carrying members of the Irreverent in Nature society, my husband and I ran around the house grabbing things we didn’t need or want so we could get in on the gifting frenzy, asking each other if we thought someone would really want a five-pound can of hominy, or a moss-covered Chia-pet troll, then trilling back “Buy Nothing Earlybirds!” in true Portlandia style. Thus, Shorelandia was born.

Why here, why now?From my cozy world to wherever you may be, I want to share the occasional recipe that has brought me joy, experiences you may find of interest, thoughts and anecdotes maybe you can relate to, from someone smack in the middle of life.I will also be using this site to get in the habit of writing again, after a long period of creative dormancy. Hold my hand as I traipse through life – past, present, and future – skipping, sometimes tumbling, but always getting back up and moving on.